Gulf Coast clinches first-round bye

Mississippi Gulf Coast turned in a strong defensive performance on the road Thursday night, clinching a first-round bye in the NJCAA Region 23 Men's Basketball Tournament.

The Bulldogs won 65-59 over Copiah-Lincoln in Wesson, and can finish second, third or fourth in the final MACCC standings depending on results Monday. Gulf Coast entertains archrival Pearl River to close out the regular season.

"It's big anytime you can stay at home while other teams are playing and teams will be eliminated," Gulf Coast coach Owen Miller said. "We'll be resting and then get a home game, so that's big. It's what everybody wants, to get one of those four seeds. Now, we've gotta finish this thing off and see what seed we can get. It's big for us, gives us an extra couple days off of preparation, then we get a home game. That's real big."

Gulf Coast is 23-5 overall, 10-3 MACCC. The last time the Bulldogs won 23 games was in the 2011-12 season.

Duran Parish (So., Biloxi/Biloxi) had 20 points and five rebounds to lead Gulf Coast. Avan Wilson (So., Bay St. Louis/Bay) and Za'Kariyea Hamilton (So., Jackson/Clinton) had 11 each.

Matthew Hinton (So., Atlanta, Ga./Dutchtown) had seven points, nine rebounds and four blocks. His presence on the inside also forced a lot of missed shots, especially in the first half when Co-Lin shot 30.4 percent from the floor.

Gulf Coast also grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, winning the second-chance points battle 16-3.

The Bulldogs led by 14 early in the half, but the Wolves got a putback with 6:29 left to make it 52-51. Gulf Coast turned up the defensive execution to help put the game away.

Co-Lin missed a 3-pointer, which was answered by Za'Kariyea Hamilton (So., Jackson/Clinton), who buried a 3 from the corner. The Wolves missed the front end of a one-and-one, and King George (Fr., Olive Branch/Olive Branch) made both of his for a 57-51 lead.

Co-Lin (13-13, 6-7) got a layup, but Parish got an offensive rebound and then made a 3. After a Hamilton steal, Parish made a run-out layup for a 62-53 lead. He also buried a 3 with two minutes left for an 11-point advantage to close things out.

"It was one of our best nights defensively," Miller said. "We had a couple of hiccups on baseline out-of-bounds plays, but other than that, I thought we were really sound. They're hard to guard. They run really good stuff, and you've gotta be focused on the back cuts, or they can get some easy ones. Overall, we did a really nice job defensively."

Parish made 4-of-7 behind the arc, and the Bulldogs made 7-of-11 in the second half.

Gulf Coast plays Pearl River on Monday at Perk. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be streamed at https://mgcccbulldogs.com/watch.

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.